


Confrontation

by childishillusions



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, song!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 01:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5438468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/childishillusions/pseuds/childishillusions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy really should have known that demons do not die easily. Nor do they leave their hosts alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confrontation

Percy found himself unable to sleep on the eve of the first day of the Winter Crest Festival. His first Winter Crest in his home town – the kingdom he had fought and planned and killed for… But that was not entirely true. While he had sought the freedom of his people, his main drive for returning to Whitestone had not been justice nor freedom… But his desire to avenge the loss of his family.

He… He had wanted revenge before Orthax had found him… Hadn’t he? His vengeance had been satisfied. The Briarwoods were dead – as was Anders and Stonefell. Ripley still lived, but without the Briarwoods funding her, he doubted that she would attempt to go after him, Vox Machina or Whitestone. From his conversations with that horrid creature she was very mercenary in nature and had wanted to flee when she had heard that they were coming to re-take Whitestone.

The noble started to pace around his room – the same one he had when he had been a child, cleaned up of course and with new sheets as the old ones had been covered in a thick layer of dust – as he remembered some of the actions he had taken… And the vicious glee he had felt in his darker moments. Percy had known that he should have spoken more carefully when asking Grog to take Vuk’s tongue, to keep the toady from using verbal magic or say too much of what their plans were. Yet he had simply told the Goliath to take the muscle.

An uneasy tightness clenched in his chest, as the gunslinger glanced at Bad News, wondering bleakly what would have happened if he had managed to resist Scanlan’s spell and keep the pepperbox. He was fairly certain that the small, icy ball in his chest had been the lingering link between himself and Orthax. After all, the ice in his chest had only vanished once The List had been destroyed, and a curl of the shadow demon’s (if it had been a shadow demon) spirit or essence had escaped from the rapidly dissolving barrel that had been able to be seen.

“Am I a good man? Am I a mad man?” Percy asked himself, as he stared at the dusty mirror. There was some moonlight from the windows. It was just enough light for the noble to ask his reflection, as he tried to decide what his actions and thoughts said about him as a person. He had been profoundly thankful that he had not lost himself to the point that he had threatened Vox Machina – nor that he had leveled his gun at his younger sister Cassandra. “There’s such a fine line between a good man and a…”

The voice rumbled and cackled in his mind. Derision and an unholy delight causing Orthax’s voice to be even more sinister than normal. How Percy had ever thought to trust this thing – or at least not to go running to the nearest temple and ask humbly for help getting an exorcism was beyond the noble. “Do you really think that I would ever let you go? Do you think I’d ever set you free? If you do I’m sad to say it isn’t so. You will never get away from me! We made a deal Percival. You still need to kill Ripley.” To make matters worse, the Shadow demon billowed out from the sleeves of his sleep-wear and curled around him in a mockery of a loving embrace.

“All that you are is a face in my dreams! I open my eyes and you disappear!” The noble denied, struggling to get away from the demon that had appeared to have a foothold in his soul still. Unfortunately the only direction he could go was closer towards the mirror as he was surrounded on three sides by the shadow demon.

“I’m what aids you when you face your enemies! Long as you live I will be here.” Orthax rebuked, his darkly ethereal voice still mocking as the shadow creature started to become larger and more solid, clawed hands resting on Percy’s shoulders.

“All that you are is the end of a nightmare! All that you are is a vengeful scream! After tonight I will end this demon dream.” The gunslinger hissed as he searched for an exit – if he had to pass through the lighter parts of the smoke demon, Percy would so he could flee towards Keeper Yennen. The noble was vividly aware that it was ridiculously late, but with his personal demon tormenting him and the thing beneath the castle, it was imperative to get this hellish entity banished (permanently if possible).

“This is not a dream my friend – and it will never end! This one is the nightmare that goes on. Orthax is here to stay. No matter what you pretend – and he’ll flourish long after you’re gone!” The shadow demon laughed, stretching and growing up to his full height. Percival had given him much strength so far, and he was not going to let this human go so easily.

Percy shook his head as he ran as fast as he could through the shifting outer smoke of the dark monster that would not leave, making a break for the door. He was able to pass half-way through the smoke monster, shouting now (though he was unaware that he was doing so) “Soon you will die and my memory will hide you! You cannot choose but to lose control! I have resisted and defeated you before and I will do so again.”

The fiend laughed as he wrapped himself around the fleeing human, forcing the other to still his movements. He dragged Percival back towards the mirror. He manifested his face so that the point of his beak was resting on top of the other’s head “You cannot control me, I live deep inside you. Each day you will feel me devour your soul!” Breaking this human was going to be a coup de gras for the shadow demon. Percival could be capable of so much good – or much harm and Orthax was determined to feed off the numerous souls he could get the noble to kill if only the other would give in.

“I don’t need you to survive, not like you need me! I’ll become whole as you dance with death, and I will rejoice as you take your final breath!” Percy growled out, struggling desperately in the monster’s grasp as he tried to no avail to wrench himself from Orthax’s grip.

The Smoke Demon laughed, amused by the younger being’s denials and struggles, crooning “I’ll live inside you forever! With Vecna himself by my side.”

“NO! NOOO!” Percy screamed in anguish, his legs giving out on him from the sheer horror of being a potential vessel for not only this wretched demon but the lich king as well. His mind scrambled for something to do or say, his sense warring with his panic and misery.

“And I know that now and forever, they will never be able to separate Percival from Orthax!” The hellish creature cooed at his distraught host, his smoke condensing around the silver haired man’s shivering form.

“Can’t you see, It’s over now?” The noble asked, voice cracking as he pressed a hand to the mirror he had been pushed up against. He pulled himself together enough to spit at the demon “It’s time to die!”

The ethereal creature dragged Percival upright by the wrists with one shadowy hand as he retorted “No not I! Only you.” His claws curled around the other’s neck deceptively gently.

“If I die, you’ll die too!” The Gunslinger responded, steeling himself as he lashed out with a firm kick to what should be the other’s midsection as he tried to get away from the demon once again, staggering backwards until he hit something from behind. 

Orthax laughed again at the other’s protests and forced himself into the other’s body, crooning inside the other’s mind “You’ll die in me! I’ll be you!”

Percival convulsed as he fought with every ounce of his very being to repel the creature trying to forcibly take his body from him “NO! Deep inside-”

The demon chuckled darkly again as he forced Percival’s body to move against the human’s will. He showed the other his pitch-black eyes and the wisps of smoke that curled around their combined form. “I am you! You are Orthax!”

The human coughed and struggled against the other again, desperately trying to force the hellish entity from his body, or at least to force it away enough to make sure that his eyes were their normal color once again “NO – Never!” He would never succumb so entirely to this vile creature’s machinations to be the other’s puppet, no matter what Orthax had planned for him.

“Yes – forever!” The demon cackled. Their bond had been recently severed, and with Percival struggling so much, it would be difficult to re-establish the connection. However if he could provoke more of the despair and resignation he could feel warring with the other’s determination to not be possessed again he would be able to once again feed off of Percival – and the kills that the brilliant human made. All of the kills, not just those that had decorated the barrel of The List.

“Gods damn you, Orthax! Take all your evil deeds and rot in hell!” The gunslinger hissed, his eyes shining a bright and clear blue once again as he used every ounce of his rage at this creature for using him, his desire to protect his friends and family and his determination to see this creature destroyed in an attempt to shove the creature out of his soul. He was physically shaking with the effort, but he was fairly sure it was working. He staggered up to his feet and the demonic being seemed to drift away a little, to diminish.

The demon crooned “I’ll see you there, Percival!” He had underestimated his human’s stubbornness, but he was also well aware that there was fragility within Percy. While he was much weaker, he would have enough of his essence within the noble so that when the other was at his most desperate, weakened state that he would once again allow Orthax to assist him. They would share power again, of that the smoke demon was sure.

“NEVER!” The potential lord of Whitestone cried out in anguish before collapsing to his knees again, coughing out black smoke as the demonic entity left his body almost entirely. Percy collapsed onto the floor completely, his limbs trembling with the exertion of rejecting the demon who had lived inside of him for most of his exile from Whitestone. The human did not notice that Orthax was still in his room, having settled into the darkest part of the room – which so happened to be the space beneath Percival’s bed.

With the last of his strength, the Gunslinger pulled himself up to his feet and staggered towards the door, one hand touching the handle of his door before it flew open, most of Vox Machina staring at him with looks of worry and concern. He also noted a bleary-eyed and confused Keeper Yennen, who looked as though Scanlan – or perhaps Vax – had just dimension door’d him to the castle.

Vex stepped forwards, taking in his ashen features and still-trembling limbs, and asked softly, voice coaxing and tentative in a way he had heard her speaking to frightened clients or wild animals “Percy… We heard you screaming – were you fighting a gift left by the Briarwoods?”

A weak and nearly hysterical laugh escaped the human as he shook his head “Orthax still lives… I… He’s still… Connected to me somehow…” he staggered towards her, collapsing into her arms, shaking. “He left, but I have the distinct feeling he’s close. Please be careful, all of you. I… I am so tired now…” She was warm and familiar. It made the de Rolo smile a little as his vision faded from him. He could distantly feel her trying to shake him but he simply didn’t have the energy to stay conscious anymore, now that he had warned his friends of the demon’s return.


End file.
